Lower Menu

Dolphins Guide Scientist to Rescue Girl

Here is an incredible story from the good folks at National Geographic. We’ve all heard of dolphins interaction with humans, during which dolphins intervene in order to protect swimmers against sharks and other such predatory dangers.

But this story goes a step further. A group of researchers were following dolphins near the shores of Los Angeles. They were watching them feed in circle when suddenly one dolphin broke out of the circle and swam away, towards deeper waters. Soon after this, the rest of the group followed suit, leaving behind their foraging area, a behavior which indeed seemed at odd with what the scientists were expecting.

So the scientists decided to follow the departing dolphins who were now swimming offshore, increasingly faster. But what the scientists saw next was unbelievable. The dolphins had now formed a sort of a ring around a dark form, floating in the water.

As the boat approached, the scientists realized that it was in fact the seemingly lifeless body of a girl who was then lifted aboard, in a “cyanotic” state, suffering from severe hypothermia.

Nobody knows for sure that the dolphins purposely lead the boat to the drawing girl, but one thing is sure, they knew that something was wrong and their action ended up saving the girl’s life!

A while ago, I was boating a couple of miles of the Biscayne coast in south Florida when a dolphin and her infant approach our boat. It’s a common recurrence in Miami, which is why I love living here. The mom kept her distance but the infant was way more inquisitive and kept approaching our boat before being nudged away by his/her watching mom. This lasted for a few minutes, the “kid” would swim closer and closer towards us and mom would chase after him and bring him back. And then the infant got right close to us but this time his mom didn’t do anything and quite suddenly, he flipped on his back exposing his belly swimming closer and closer to where my daughter was, leaning as she was with her hand in the water. She didn’t quite manage to touch him but it was really close. And mom did nothing to stop it. It’s an experience that will never leave us.